Fathi Shaqaqi

Fathi Shaqaqi (1951-26 October 1995) was the founder of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization in 1979. A mastermind of suicide bombings in Israel, he was assassinated in 1995.

Biography
Shaqaqi was born in Rafah in the Gaza Strip in 1951, and joined the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. However, he was disappointed by the lack of support for Palestinian jihad against Israel and founded the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in 1979, inspired by the Iranian Revolution. Shaqaqi was responsible for the 1995 Beit Lid suicide bombing that killed 25 innocent Israeli citizens, and boasted about it in an interview with BBC, giggling when the reporter asked if he knew about the attack in advance.

In response to his terrorist activities, Israeli Mossad targeted him in Sliema, Malta in the Diplomat Hotel. He traveled under the alias of Dr. Ibrahim Ali Shawesh, and in 1995 he headed to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to speak with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who promised to fund the PIJ. He planned to take a flight to Damascus, Syria from Malta, an island just south of Italy's island of Sicily. Ibrahim Hamidi spoke with him in an interview on 21 October 1995.

On 26 October Mossad Kidon commando Gil left Rome on a late-afternoon flight, while Ran left Athens at the same time. The two arrived at the island and checked into the Diplomat Hotel, with a Mossad crew stationed on a freighter off Malta (the freighter left Haifa and claimed that it was having engine issues, so it would have to stay off Malta in anchor) directing them.

Death
Gil and Ran procured a motorcycle from a local contact and they claimed that it was for touring the ancient island. While Shaqaqi was on the waterfront, the two shot him six times in the head, using a device to catch the spent cartridges. His funeral in Damascus was attended by 40,000 people; he was only able to be identified by Maltese police three days later.